The First Album Recorded Entirely on the iPhone is Here

Alabama-based rock band One Like Son spent last year recording a new set of songs solely with iPhone track apps.

[via Mashable]

Vringo pre-loads 'social' ringtones on ZTE phones

Vringo's Facetones creates an automated video slideshow using friends’ photos from social media sites and then plays this video when a user makes or receives a call. It connects with Facebook for now, but more partnerships are planned.

[via MobileEntertainement]

Hands on with GarageBand for the iPhone and iPad

Apple’s mobile music app hits GarageBand is getting its first full update, and it’s a whopper, writes MacWorld in a lengthy and rave review.

The app has gone universal, with a brand-new iPhone and iPod touch interface, and has added a bunch of new features, including custom chords for Smart Instruments, an Arpeggiator, new velocity settings, transposition, new time signatures, quantization options, and support for AAC and AIFF export.

Read full article.

Björk releases first "app album"

Icelandic musician Björk has just come out with what she refers to as the world's first "app album" consisting of an iPad and iPhone app featuring ten songs, each of which has an accompanying interactive app of its own.

Comprising a suite of original music and interactive, educational artworks and musical artifacts, the Biophilia app is released as ten in-app experiences that are accessed as you fly through a three-dimensional galaxy that accompanies the album’s them.

[via TUAW]

App Scans Printed Music Notes, Plays Them In Real-Time

TechCrunch writes about Japan-based musical instrument maker Kawai which has developed a camera app that scans music notes printed on paper and plays them back in real-time. Dubbed Gakufu Camera [JP], the app is said to be the first of its kind.

Kawai claims the app also works with handwritten notes, those printed in different colors and under weak lighting.

Gakufu Camera also offers a few other bells and whistles, for example a function that allows you to store the notes you scanned first and play the melody afterwards.

Read more.

SoundHound Adds Real-Time Lyrics to Music Recognition

Hot on the heels of music recognition service Shazam’s addition of a new feature called LyricPlay, competitor SoundHound is out with its own offering: LiveLyrics. Mashable reports.

LiveLyrics launches Wednesday as part of version 4.0 [iTunes link] of the free and paid versions of the SoundHound app for iOS.

Now, when users identify a song using SoundHound, they can also pull up lyrics, which begin scrolling in time to the music. Users can also access lyrics when playing music on their own Apple iOS devices, and tap on words to skip to that section of the song.

At launch, the service will have lyrics for 500,000 tracks, but it hopes to expand to 1 million songs by the end of the year.

Read full article.

New Songify App Turns Spoken Word into Song

YouTube sensations The Gregory Brothers, in conjunction with developer Khush, released Songify, a new iPhone app that turns spoken words into song. Billboard reports.

The interface of the app is simple and similar in appearance to music recognition app, Shazam. The user presses a large icon in the center and then can speak into the phone's microphone for 1 to 60 seconds. The app then converts the words to a song, sometimes even following a verse-chorus-verse structure, if the speech is long enough.

Read full article.

An iPhone App For Spontaneous Singing

Vocal Zap is a music app that strips (or lowers) the vocal track from songs in real-time. It keeps the music intact so you can sing karaoke any time the mood hits you.

[via Gizmodo]

Birdsong applications lure birds into the open

Bird watchers desperate to catch the perfect shot, have been accused of playing birdsong applications to lure birds into the open. The Daily Mail reports.

Nature wardens said yesterday that the practice was confusing mating birds – who think the birdsongs and calls featured on the applications, or ‘apps’, are the sound of rival male birds invading their territory.

As a result, the birds are leaving chicks unattended in their nests and vulnerable to attack from predators, and without food for what can be lengthy periods of time before the parent returns.

Read full article. Image from Ducks.ca.

Sprint Releases New Music Plus Application

Sprint's new Music Plus app provided by RealNetworks will provide users with access to ringback tones, ringtones and full music tracks.

According to Scott Cannon over at sprintconnection, the Music Plus app can be accessed direct on a Sprint phone, or via the sprint.com website. The app enables Sprint users to discover, play and purchase individual songs, bundled offers and even full albums.

Not only will users be able to create their very own music playlists, but the app will also enable them to assign ringback tones for different callers and different times of the day. Customers have the option of searching for music by title, keyword or a specific artist.

Read full press release.

Pandora Issued a Subpoena for Possibly Violating Internet Privacy Laws

Pandora, the popular streaming music service, has been issued a subpoena by a federal grand jury concerning the sharing of personal data with its smartphone application.

[via TIME's Techland]

The World's First Location Aware Music Album

Washington DC-based music duo Bluebrains’ latest release is not a standard album in the sense that it can be listened to passively in one sitting or, for that matter, at any location.

Rather, it is a site-specific piece of music that responds to the listeners location within the stretch of park in downtown Washington DC known as the Mall.

The work will be delivered as an app for the iPhone and is the first in a series of location-aware albums Bluebrain will create. 'The National Mall' will be available in the Apple App Store in the coming weeks.

According to FastCo Design:

The app uses GPS to track listeners' proximity to landmarks in and around the National Mall, subtly changing the sound of the music in the process. Bluebrain digitally tagged hundreds of overlapping physical "zones" in the Mall and synced them to various arrangements in the app/album.

Read full article.

Share Your Music With Friends Without Sharing Your Headphones With This App

MyStream app for iPhone allows you to synchronously and wirelessly listen to music and audiobooks with your friends. The developers are treating it as a music discovery app—likely to escape potential lawsuits—so you're presented with links to buy the music you've listened to.

[via Gizmodo]

Music app Shazam gets new Facebook features

Shazam, the mobile application that has enthralled millions of listeners with its ability to detect and identify a song--largely ending the need to Google lyrics--has gotten a little bit more social. Namely, the latest update to its iPhone app (and soon Android app) added Facebook integration.

[via CNet]

RanDinger app for Android previews over 10 million tracks for ringtones

RanDinger, a new Android App, allows you to preview music by hearing it as your ringtone. The application seamlessly integrates into your phone, delivering new ringtones after every call. Powered by 7digital and their catalog of over 10 million tracks.

[via Expertclick]

FanTrail app enables musicians to tap social networks

The New York Times on FanTrail, a new free app for the iPhone and Android, that allows musicians to tap social networks for useful and possibly valuable information about their fans.

Using FanTrail, artists can tailor messages or commercial offers to specific groups of fans, identified by location or LoveMeter ranking. Another ne function, called LoveMail, allows musicians to record short audio messages to fans.

Read full review.

Investors Are Drawn Anew to Digital Music

The explosion in smartphone apps has given investors and entrepreneurs optimism that the digital music business is poised to finally become profitable.

[via The New York Times]

Billboard Chart App for iPhone

60 years of Billboard chart history is now available on your iPhone.

Released Thursda< in the iTunes store, the Billboard Chart App features 15 charts, from the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 to genre rankings and ringtones. Users can view 60 years of chart history, search by artist, album or song, view ranking details, listen to 30 seconds of music and make purchases directly through iTunes.

The Billboard Chart App is updated weekly with Billboard's traditional chart release schedule and features each ranking's previous week's position, number of weeks on the chart, and peak chart position. Users can search for specific artists, albums or songs, and search by date.

IntoNow app identifies TV choices by sound

Early iPhone app Shazam was unmistakably cool. Hold a phone up while a song was playing in the background and Shazam could name that tune.

Now, according to USA Today, there's a clever and free iPhone app called IntoNow that works similar magic with television.

Tap a green button, and four to 12 seconds later IntoNow can figure out from the audio what you're watching. IntoNow can tell whether the show is live. It serves up a brief descriptor of the episode.

Read more.

RanDinger App Offers Millions of Ringtone Previews for $2.99

RanDinger, a new Android App, allows the user to preview over 10 million tracks as their ringtone for $2.99 - the cost of the app. Each new call features a different tune based upon user choices.

[via ExpertClick]

Ringtone Wiz iOS App – Custom Ringtones for Your iPhone

The Ringtone Wiz app lets you create your own custom ringtones and features support for 35 different languages. slapapp reports via Product Review.

This multi-track designer lets you get creative with music, text-to-speech and recorded voice. You can even combine all three to come up with the most original ringtones you can think of.

Ringtone Maker app now available for Blackberry and Android

The Ringtone Maker app originally available for iPhones only, now supports Android and BlackBerry devices.

In their own words: I's the fastest and easiest way to create custom ringtones for your phone anytime you feel like creating one. You can now create unlimited amount of ringtones without ever paying again. It is so fast and easy that by the end of the first day of use don't be surprised if you have created over 20 custom ringtones in mere minutes.

GeoRing app Turns Your Entire Library Into Ringtones

GeoRing let's you create a ringtone playlist with your favorite songs. The iphone app randomly picks a song from your playlist when your phone rings.

You can also tag your incoming calls with music and location. Play a song from your iTunes library whenever your iPhone rings. Plus, geotag your incoming calls and view them on a map.

[Spotted on Cult of Mac]

10 iPhone apps for music lovers

Everyone knows about Pandora, Last.fm and Spotify, but USA Today has reviewed 10 other apps, which have mostly flown under the radar, that deserve props for making it easier for us to enjoy the music we love.

1. Audiogalaxy Mobile

2. sir Sampleton

3. ooTunes Radio

4. Earworms

5. SoundHound

6. TuneWiki

7. Concert Vault

8. Local Concerts

9. Top 100s by Year

10. Adaptunes

Read USA Today's reviews.

Create Ringtones! Available in AppStore

Create Ringtones!, developed by 2010 App Beast is now available for free in the App Store.

[via American Consumer News]

Slow down iPhone app

Slow Down.be from OVK on Vimeo.

Young people tend to drive fast when they listen to music, so the Belgian road safety organization Parents of Child Road Victims has created an iPhone application called Slow Down that plays music and adapts the pace the song to the driver's speed.

[via Adverblog. Posted on Textually Dec 1st]

Shazam Helps 100 Million Users Identify Tunes

Just six months after identifying its one billionth song, mobile music discovery service Shazam has reached another milestone: It now has 100 million users. Mashable reports.

Shazam’s user base has grown by 25 million in the last six months, thanks in part to its decision to expand from music identification into areas like television and advertising.

The service launched 10 years ago, but it really wasn’t until its iPhone app was released in 2008 that it really started to take off.

Read full article.

Now You Can Bump iOS Devices to Share Music

Bump, the cell phone app that allows for a quick and easy way to connect two phones simply by bumping them together, now supports user-to-user music sharing.

In their own words: Select songs on your device and bump them to a friend. They can stream them for free from Youtube, listen to iTunes previews, or buy them on iTunes.

[via Mashable]

Spooky Tunes iPhone App for Email Alerts

Spooky Tunes iphone app makes your iPhone part of the Halloween celebrations with its own distinctive Halloween email alert sounds. From cackles to thumps and bumps - you'll know when you've got mail.

When you run SpookyTones, you will receive a special email address @mailtones.net. Forward A COPY of your email to that address and any mail you receive will make your iPhone howl with your chosen tone.

Capo song-learning app comes to iPhone

Capo is a song-learning app for the iPhone, that helps you learn to play the music in your iPod.

By slowing down the music without affecting its pitch, you can learn to play it slowly, and then speed it up as you improve. You can drop markers at key points in the song, and set loop points to repeat them.

Read a rave review in MacWorld.

New iPhone apps are changing how music is marketed and made

The latest promise of a revolutionary app comes from an unexpected source: Adam Perry, drummer for British punk-pop group A and, more recently, the Bloodhound Gang – those grubby American rap-rockers responsible for such eloquent contributions to the pop canon as I Wish I Was Queer, So I Could Get Chicks. By day, however, Perry is something of a budding music industry entrepreneur. The Guardian reports.

He describes his new creation BandApp as, "The mini record deal your band has been waiting for." For a small fee, it works as a record store, marketing department and cameraphone-wielding stalker combined. As Perry puts it, "You can take a picture of the drummer getting out of the shower after the gig, press send, and all of your fans have it on their phones." Equally, rather than trying to sign five bands in the hope of selling a million records each, he can, without risk, "sign" 100,000 bands, even if they're only likely to sell 50 records each.

BandApp has already been acclaimed by the kind of rock groups who might have trouble getting their music into the censorious, naked-drummer's-arse-hating iTunes store. But there are numerous other, wildly different, apps emerging that have also been heralded as "revolutionary" for other reasons.

Read full article.

Thumbplay apps rock 500'000 downloads

Who says nobody will consider paying for streaming music? [via TechCrunch]

Thumbplay Music, which offers unlimited music streaming apps for a monthly subscription across iPhone (iTunes link), Android, and Blackberry, reports that its smartphone apps have been downloaded 500,000 times since June.

Thumbplay won’t say how many of those downloads turn into paying customers (you get a free trial before having to start paying $9.99 a month), but even if it’s only 10 percent, that’s $500,000 a month in revenues (although even that may be way too generous).

Read full article.

MorphWiz Wins ‘Best Music Creation App’ at Billboard’s Music App Summit

MorphWiz was chosen as “Best Music Creation App” in the first-ever Billboard Music App Awards, produced by Billboard Magazine, on October 5, 2010.

MorphWiz is a both an expressive musical instrument and an exciting visual experience. Created by Jordan Rudess and Kevin Chartier, MorphWiz is enjoyable for beginners and seasoned musicians alike.

It contains over 50 presets programmed by the wizard himself, Jordan Rudess, to allow for an instantly musical experience from the moment the application is first opened. For more experienced users, a wide array of synthesis, effects, and visual options allow the instrument to be precisely configured to the user's tastes.

Full press release.

Apps for music subscription services play tunes on the spot

New apps from online music subscription services turn smartphones and other mobile devices into "celestial jukeboxes." They can play millions of songs, on demand, anywhere, for a monthly fee of $10.

[via USA Today]

How Shazam Works To Identify (Nearly) Every Song You Throw At It

Gizmodo explains the magic behind Shazam's music recognition technology.

Apple Reverses Another Stance, Allows Ringtone Makers Into The App Store

Since the early days of the App Store, applications that allow users to make ringtones from songs on their handsets have either inexplicably sat on hold or were outright denied. And yet, as of right now, there are no less than 5 different ringtone making apps sitting in the App Store.

Mobile Crunch has them listed here.

iPhone Apps Overtaking Songs in Total Downloads

There's an interesting chart making its way around the Net this morning comparing the number of iTunes app downloads to the total downloads of songs. [via ReadWriteWeb]

The surprising reveal is that it shows apps are being downloaded much more rapidly than songs. In only 2.2 years, the iTunes App Store has reached the same total downloads as the iTunes Music Store did after five years. And before the year is out, the two curves on the chart will be around the same height - 13 billion downloads each.

Read full article.

New Gaming Trend: iPhone Games You Can Play With Your Eyes Closed

They might be for niche audiences, but the world's first audio-only iPhone game, Aurifi (or-if-EYE) was released a few weeks ago and the second one, Papa Sangre, is slated to be released in September. The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

What's behind this new trend in gaming?

It isn't new technology, which is fairly commonplace in the industry, says Aurifi developer Chris Walker of Punk Pie.

Walker said they mainly used Apple's Logic software and plug-ins to create the game, which contains several mini-games in which players use only audio-cues to complete tasks.

Instead, like many iPhone-app stories, it's mostly the new distribution system that's helping these sorts of apps come to life.

... Aurifi has over 11,000 active users within its first 8 weeks, and is particularly popular among visually impaired users.

Read full article.

Store music in Google Docs, play it on your iPhone

A new app called Cloud Music uses Google Docs to offer a quick-and-dirty music locker service, but it can't compare with full-fledged music lockers like MP3Tunes.

[Read full review in News.com]

Musicians using apps to meet you Backstage

A new mobile service called Mobile Backstage allows musicians to create a mobile “hub” for their fans, combining a lot of different “hot” aspects of mobile technology: social networking, content sharing and ‘checking in’.

[via GoMoNews]

20% of British smartphone users listen to radio on their mobile phone

According to UK’s Radio Joint Audience Research (RAJAR), 20% of British smartphone owners, or 1.4 million people, have downloaded a radio app on their device.

Of those, over half (53%) use a radio app at least once a week; 54% select the station using specific FM preset while 14% run an app for a specific radio station.

[via IntoMobile]

Related: - Smartphone Apps: The New Transistor Radio

This Day in Music app for iPhone

This Day in Music app for iPhone gives you daily updates of all major music happenings, 365 days of the year. See what song was #1 on the charts on the day you were born." How cool is that?

[via]

Adam Curry shows off iPhone apps in his own video show

Adam Curry became an overnight media sensation as a VJ on MTV in the late 1980s and early '90s. He channeled his inner geek as a podcaster in the 2000s that earned him the nickname The Podfather. Now, he has another title in mind: "AppJ." USA Today reports.

Curry is at it again. His latest project, The Big App Show, is a free iPhone app that serves as a daily video show about new, cool iPhone apps. It was downloaded 70,000 times the first two weeks it was available, in late May. (It is now up to 140,000 downloads.)

On The Big App Show, Curry delivers breezy two- to four-minute features on "really cool" apps. He plays with the app on an iPhone so users can see how it works, rather than forcing them to stare at static screenshots.

Read full article.

Sleep Blaster, an alarm clock app for iPhone

Sleep Blaster turns your iPhone into an alarm clock screams at you in the morning. And you can scream right back at it to turn it off.

In their own words:

Sleep Blaster can also wake you up at a geographical location. Simply draw any line or shape on a map, and the alarm will go off as soon as you cross that line.